


Regrets, Or A Lack Thereof

by Measured



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fluff, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-12
Updated: 2014-10-12
Packaged: 2018-02-20 20:00:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2441153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured/pseuds/Measured
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scout and Soldier fight over who is part of the cutest couple, which leads to a reveal that Soldier wasn't Zhanna's first choice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Regrets, Or A Lack Thereof

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of people have been not feeling well lately. So, teaforteu, chocolate-and-creamcake, hazmad, and Medacris, I hope you feel better. Inspiration from [this](http://yourunderwaterskies.tumblr.com/post/99020060273/otpprompts-imagine-your-various-ships-on-actual) and [this](http://macherie-69boss.tumblr.com/post/99137118468) (Which I am going to convince someone to draw, possible with art trades or something).
> 
> Thanks to Pen for the beta.

The rest of the crew had gone off for something, leaving only Soldier and him in the break room together. The room happened to be filled with pinup calenders Scout no longer paid much attention to, and more bullet holes than the average room outside of Australia. Soldier was drinking at the table across from him, his uniform covered in beer and blood stains, with craters in his helmet with fragments of shrapnel still embedded, probably at Soldier's request. Scout had just been going on about the entire Red Sox lineup for the past twenty years and then some, with a bit of digression, because as far as Scout was concerned, the long way was always the best. Most of the guys would punch him if he tried it, but Scout had already pointed out many times that baseball was _the_ American pastime, and listening to him would probably net Soldier a medal in patriotism, or something.

Of course, Soldier bought it. That was one of the best things he liked about Soldier. Scout would use his stunning good looks and silver tongue to talk them out of the situation Soldier got into them by punching people, and Soldier would punch more people. Then Miss Pauling would come and save their asses. 

Soldier nodded, even though Scout was pretty sure he didn't get the stats. Still, it was nice to talk games and not have his face blown off.

Scout took a second to take a sip of one of the glasses across the break room table. _Dem loev booms_ was carved in the wood near his elbow. A pack of dirty cards was stashed in a secret compartment of the dark, scraped up table. He'd played plenty of those cards back in the day, but neither he, nor Soldier were playing cards these days.

The door opened, and Scout looked up, gaping like a fish for a moment as he hoped for purple, and maybe the sheen of glasses, but he got black catsuits and darker hair instead. Zhanna leaned down and kissed Soldier's cheek. Her necklace of ears had grown enough that it hung deep into her cleavage. She fingered the necklace lovingly for a moment, all those gory remainders and proof of Soldier's love for her.

She cupped his cheeks and kissed him again. He noticed some bloodstains under her nails, which would probably explain Soldier's disarray. 

"We are the best," Zhanna said. 

"Come on, you can enjoy silver, but me and Miss Pauling? We take the _gold,_ " Scout said.

Soldier slammed his fist on the table. Glasses shuddered, but didn't fall. Miss Pauling worked hard to get glasses that were hard to break and subsequently have drunken glass-shard fights with. "You're way off-base, private!"

"Today we punched hippies in tandem. We will punch noisy yappy American boy if you continue with this--" Zhanna said.

She made some guttural Russian word, which he had a feeling was super vile and probably translated to bullshit, or maybe something even worse.

Scout crossed his arms over his chest. "Punching hippies? Yeah, that's okay and all, but have you waited all night with steamin’ hot coffee, then not so hot coffee, then cold coffee for five minutes with her? Hell, you probably would’ve slept. Now _that’s_ love. "

Soldier grabbed Scout by the neck and slammed him on the table. "Don’t make me go American on you! I have a medal which says world’s greatest couple!" 

The medal in question was attached to his chest, beside his other bottle cap medals. It was made out of some RED Dread brand beer with "kutest cuple" written in marker over the other lettering.

"Medals make everything official. _Admit your defeat!_ "

Scout choked and struggled for breath. "Never! I’ll never---cough—lose---cough—or give up--! Not---when---it's---Miss Pauling!"

"You’ve already lost, " Zhanna said with disdain. "He will choke the life out of you. Now, to end this." She stepped behind him, and he could feel her thick hands on his neck. "Huttah--"

"---Not on my watch! "

The door burst open, and Soldier’s grip immediately went slack. This wasn’t even the first time she’d saved him like this. 

Miss Pauling leaned against the wall to catch her breath, like maybe she'd run down the halls from the control room. He'd seen her this morning, and she'd already run her stockings, twisted the heel off one shoe, and pulled down her slip so much that a hint of black lace showed beneath her skirts. She was so damn attractive when she was disheveled from saving him from whatever bullshit he'd gotten himself into. Which was a lot, come to think of it.

Talk about a superhero of a girl.

"Just...give me a second and I'll fix this," Miss Pauling said. She took a moment to fix her glasses from where they'd fallen over, and surveyed the situation.

Zhanna made a dismissive noise. "And to think, I almost slept with him."

The one thing he hadn’t gotten around to telling Miss Pauling, because really, nothing happened and he wasn’t even sure they were dating at the time. It was a weird gray area, the part where she turned down his dates, then brought him around work and he couldn’t quite tell if hauling bodies and helping pull out the teeth of stiffs really counted or not.

The truth was, he'd almost forgotten about that whole thing.. That's how deep he was, that he could sit in a room with a Russian friggin' Amazon who had ripped off her clothes and been completely ready to hop on his dick and not even think about it. But when it came to Miss Pauling, nobody else compared. The Miss America winner could ask him to her bedroom, Lois Lane could step right out of the comic book and go _Screw Superman, I want a man who runs fast and happens to have a big, handsome mouth_ and Scout would’ve had to tell them _Sorry ladies, she’s just the only girl for me_.

The room grew quiet, and he was aware that both Soldier and Zhanna were stepping back a bit. It was then he caught her look, like a dark aura of foreboding many nights spent on the couch.

Miss Pauling turned to him, with the kind of anger which was both hot and terrifying, sometimes both at once. " _Scout_ ," she said. "What is this?"

"Whoa, whoa now, _she_ started it. I was just wakin' up from a nightmare and she was all 'I have not known a man in twenty years, lie back and think of baseball.' We didn't do nothin'!"

" _Twenty years_?" Miss Pauling said incredulously. "And I thought my five years dry spell was bad."

"I make up for lost time," she said. She shared a smile with Soldier, the ‘yeah we’re going to fuck right after you leave, fight me’ kind of smiles. Scout hoped that one day, he and Miss Pauling got to share some of those. Mostly he got ‘I’ve got three minutes, maybe we can kiss before I pass out on the couch’ looks.

"At least you had eyecandy for those five years. All I had were bears and family and snow," Zhanna said.

"Most of the time they smell like an unwashed john and their intellect isn't much higher, " Miss Pauling said.

"Hey, hey, I shower regularly _and_ don't piss in jars," Scout said, as if that were a huge drawing point, and proof of his genius.

"It is no matter. I was blinded by lust, and he stepped back, with some long blah blah blah. It was for best, I cannot take his talk."

"It's an acquired taste," Miss Pauling said.

"I'm still here, you know," Scout said. He wriggled from Soldier's grip.

"We know," Zhanna said. She touched Soldier on the shoulder. "Come now. Is my time." 

His cheeks flushed as she leaned in to whisper something probably dirty as hell. Seriously, a couple like them probably role played communism in the bedroom or something.

And in just a few seconds, he and Miss Pauling were completely alone. The anger was gone around the edges, but he still felt like apologizing, even if it was for something he didn't do. 

Scout rubbed at his neck. "You wouldn't believe how many times I gotta bandage the bruises on my neck."

"I was there for most of them," she said.

She pulled out some healing cream. He didn't see where, but he had to assume there was some magic toolbelt under her skirts, considering how many times she'd pulled exactly what was needed to save the day. She rubbed soft over his neck, the skin healing past her fingertips.

"So, I hear you’re rejecting pretty communist girls these days," Miss Pauling said.

"She wasn't you, " he said.

She traced her thumb over his Adam's apple.

"I know I’m busy, and I never call. It’s why I don’t have any of my old friends anymore. I'm not an easy person to be with," she said.

He put his hand over hers, and lifted it to his lips. 

"Really, it's their loss. Can't imagine how anyone wouldn't want to spend time with you. I’d rather wait all day to get five minutes with you than have five hours with anyone else. "

She paused, and leaned in until her lips met his. And man, call it a cliché, but everything went happy in his chest and mind at the soft brush of her lips. Just enough to sustain him through all the missed days, new wars and all the time it'd take.

"Come on, we should go back to my apartment where we have a little more privacy," she said.

She had the most sexy bedroom eyes he'd ever seen, deep green and sensual and best of all, this glance was all for him. He'd waited so long, and he'd wait years more just to see her like this.

"I'll kiss it better," she said, soft enough to send a shiver through him.

He was speechless for once, and all he could think was the wait was worth it, and it would always be worth it.


End file.
